-I still agree with this assessment of what Kobe/Melo means, even if last night's game hardly followed the script. That was the most graceful, morally permissible, battle of the titans you could get in the NBA. Also, that game struck me as part-NCAA, part-pros. Don't ask me where that intuition comes from.

This is why you guys are awesome. By far one of the coolest campaigns for basketball ever. It's just perfect.

Can we get Kenny to stop fooling around with that damn touch screen dodad and start using the freedarko style guide. Studies of players, and play breakdowns. Would be way cooler if they were animated like this. I see opportunity here!!

This may be beyond the scope of what you do or willing to say, but can you give us any background info on how this ad came together? The future direction? Or is this some wait and see/shrouded in mystery type shit?

@djturtleface - KG is too past his prime (and a little embarrassing after his post game dignity-removal-surgery), Josh has no major appeal to casual fans, and Zero needs at least a half year under his belt before he gets wide press. Rose and Howard are the exact right picks for these spots.

@w2 - Rondo used to be in Reebok, but he's always had impeccable taste in footwear (witness him wearing retro Questions his first year or two), so I won't begrudge him wearing the Swoosh.

Oh, and I second your 2nd post/@Coast - Any info about these from FD would be awesome.

Great article on Jim Grey. Let me add to your suggestion. Have you seen the clip when Pete Rose, against all odds, was honored at some all-star game, invited on the field as one of the greatest players in the 20th century. This is probably a sweet moment for him, and the only recognition he is likely to get from major league baseball, and he totally snuck in because he was voted in by fans. ANYWAY, piece of shit Jim Grey ruins it by asking him, on the field as he's being honored, if he bet on baseball on a live telecast.That dude is a human louse.

But that's a tough premise for the networks to sell.I've always felt that the networks were extraneous to NBA coverage anyhow. Before FD there never was any attempt to truly describe or understand the beast that is NBA basketball.

It's truly astonishing that you're receiving corporate recognition from an industry that relies on an obsolete model to disseminate its imagery, when you are the entity that proves said obsolescence. I'm actually excited at the possibilities that stem from FD participating in mainstream NBA media. For too long now the NBA has been tailored to a niche market, away from the drudge of NASCAR and the NFL, but pigeon-holed by racist suppositions about its audience.

FD appeals to me because it focuses on (or near) the thing I always loved most about the NBA: that the gameplay and even the outcomes were dependent upon the personalities of the players involved; and that the league, like it or not, was beholden to those personalities. The sneaker companies have long devoted their advertising efforts to appeal to style rather than substance. FD correlates style to substance. That's the difference to me: FD acknowledges the artistry of the game.

to me, FD is like a sleeping aid. it doesn't change how I watch the game, it changes how I deal with having watched. I need to justify to myself why I just spent 48 minutes of my life watching other men, in miniature, do something ostensibly senseless. FD helps me understand my love for the game, or at least I know I'm not alone.

@djturtleface--actually, no one has "their own" Adidas shoe anymore; they quit making signature shoes for individual players a couple years ago...

And otherwise backward K's answers were obviously right--Josh Smith is not widely known enough, Gil hasn't really played in a dog's age, and while KG was the face of Adidas last year, you have to roll with the new...

Besides, the choice was obvious insofar as the two players who got vids are the two Adidas players who won major postseason awards...

so time for my annual expression of puzzlement: when the NBA playoffs become unbelievably good, why is nobody here stating that simple fact in full caps or at least commenting or engaging? I mean, could somebody at least throw up some text written from the pov of Kobe's jockstrap or something?